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Power output on higher bands

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Mike Anderson

Power output on higher bands

I've noticed some weirdness with transmitting on higher bands on my
elecraft.

Down on 40, and 80, its great. When I transmit the RF meetings goes
almost all the way the up. My w2 responds and shows a good output as well.

However on 20, 15, 17, the RF meter won't even get over 50, it shows
maybe 1 or 2 bars at peak. Now my SWR on 20 is 1.6 so I assume that it
will put out less power but not that big of a loss. I also get a "hi
Curr" on 20 when i hold down the xmit/tune button and transmit that way,
even though I am putting 14.5 v into the k3. It shows 12.6v during
transmit. I do show the meter as showing it drawing almost 23 amp
during transmit on 20, the rest of the bands are about 14amp. Again
these readings are measured when i hold down the XMIT button.

On 10m i get a 1:1 swr match, and it does the same thing, barely no RF
output. So I am not convinced its a SWR match thing.

Have I missed a setting somewhere? Somewhere that I have to turn this
up. I have the PWR turned up to 110.

Anyone have any ideas?
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Jack Brindle-2

Re: Power output on higher bands

What is the radio? There are several possibilities...

Jack B, W6FB

On Mar 1, 2012, at 5:04 PM, Mike Anderson wrote:

> I've noticed some weirdness with transmitting on higher bands on my
> elecraft.
>
> Down on 40, and 80, its great. When I transmit the RF meetings goes
> almost all the way the up. My w2 responds and shows a good output as
> well.
>
> However on 20, 15, 17, the RF meter won't even get over 50, it shows
> maybe 1 or 2 bars at peak. Now my SWR on 20 is 1.6 so I assume that it
> will put out less power but not that big of a loss. I also get a "hi
> Curr" on 20 when i hold down the xmit/tune button and transmit that
> way,
> even though I am putting 14.5 v into the k3. It shows 12.6v during
> transmit. I do show the meter as showing it drawing almost 23 amp
> during transmit on 20, the rest of the bands are about 14amp. Again
> these readings are measured when i hold down the XMIT button.
>
> On 10m i get a 1:1 swr match, and it does the same thing, barely no RF
> output. So I am not convinced its a SWR match thing.
>
> Have I missed a setting somewhere? Somewhere that I have to turn this
> up. I have the PWR turned up to 110.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

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Mike Anderson

Re: Power output on higher bands

Sorry that was dumb.. It's a k3.

On 3/1/12 8:33 PM, Jack Brindle wrote:

> What is the radio? There are several possibilities...
>
> Jack B, W6FB
>
>
> On Mar 1, 2012, at 5:04 PM, Mike Anderson wrote:
>
>> I've noticed some weirdness with transmitting on higher bands on my
>> elecraft.
>>
>> Down on 40, and 80, its great. When I transmit the RF meetings goes
>> almost all the way the up. My w2 responds and shows a good output as
>> well.
>>
>> However on 20, 15, 17, the RF meter won't even get over 50, it shows
>> maybe 1 or 2 bars at peak. Now my SWR on 20 is 1.6 so I assume that it
>> will put out less power but not that big of a loss. I also get a "hi
>> Curr" on 20 when i hold down the xmit/tune button and transmit that way,
>> even though I am putting 14.5 v into the k3. It shows 12.6v during
>> transmit. I do show the meter as showing it drawing almost 23 amp
>> during transmit on 20, the rest of the bands are about 14amp. Again
>> these readings are measured when i hold down the XMIT button.
>>
>> On 10m i get a 1:1 swr match, and it does the same thing, barely no RF
>> output. So I am not convinced its a SWR match thing.
>>
>> Have I missed a setting somewhere? Somewhere that I have to turn this
>> up. I have the PWR turned up to 110.
>>
>> Anyone have any ideas?
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>
>

Don Wilhelm-4

Re: Power output on higher bands

In reply to this post by Mike Anderson

Mike,

Are you transmitting into a dummy load, or into an antenna. If you are
transmitting into an antenna, I have to ask - what are the
characteristics of your antenna on each band that you make reference to
- I need to know the resistance and the reactance, not just the SWR.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 3/1/2012 8:04 PM, Mike Anderson wrote:

> I've noticed some weirdness with transmitting on higher bands on my
> elecraft.
>
> Down on 40, and 80, its great. When I transmit the RF meetings goes
> almost all the way the up. My w2 responds and shows a good output as well.
>
> However on 20, 15, 17, the RF meter won't even get over 50, it shows
> maybe 1 or 2 bars at peak. Now my SWR on 20 is 1.6 so I assume that it
> will put out less power but not that big of a loss. I also get a "hi
> Curr" on 20 when i hold down the xmit/tune button and transmit that way,
> even though I am putting 14.5 v into the k3. It shows 12.6v during
> transmit. I do show the meter as showing it drawing almost 23 amp
> during transmit on 20, the rest of the bands are about 14amp. Again
> these readings are measured when i hold down the XMIT button.
>
> On 10m i get a 1:1 swr match, and it does the same thing, barely no RF
> output. So I am not convinced its a SWR match thing.
>
> Have I missed a setting somewhere? Somewhere that I have to turn this
> up. I have the PWR turned up to 110.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

Mike Anderson

Re: Power output on higher bands

In reply to this post by Mike Anderson

Just as an update, I got it all fixed, thanks to Keith and Gary at
Elecraft support. I only have the 1 filter that came with it, and the
"offset" wasn't set inside the k3 utility on the filter settings. I set
the offset like it was supposed to be, re-ran the tx calibration and
everything is running perfect.

What a great experience it was to build this from the ground up, and get
it on the air. Just minutes after the fix I got 2 new DX countries on 20m!

Thanks Elecraft!!

On 3/1/2012 20:04, Mike Anderson wrote:

> I've noticed some weirdness with transmitting on higher bands on my
> elecraft.
>
> Down on 40, and 80, its great. When I transmit the RF meetings goes
> almost all the way the up. My w2 responds and shows a good output as well.
>
> However on 20, 15, 17, the RF meter won't even get over 50, it shows
> maybe 1 or 2 bars at peak. Now my SWR on 20 is 1.6 so I assume that it
> will put out less power but not that big of a loss. I also get a "hi
> Curr" on 20 when i hold down the xmit/tune button and transmit that way,
> even though I am putting 14.5 v into the k3. It shows 12.6v during
> transmit. I do show the meter as showing it drawing almost 23 amp
> during transmit on 20, the rest of the bands are about 14amp. Again
> these readings are measured when i hold down the XMIT button.
>
> On 10m i get a 1:1 swr match, and it does the same thing, barely no RF
> output. So I am not convinced its a SWR match thing.
>
> Have I missed a setting somewhere? Somewhere that I have to turn this
> up. I have the PWR turned up to 110.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?

ab2tc

Re: Power output on higher bands

Hi,

Ah, of course. Your radio wasn't working well on the bands using upper sideband because of the filter offset! Very clever of Elecraft support to pick that up. I am glad you got it sorted out.

AB2TC - Knut

Mike Anderson wrote

Just as an update, I got it all fixed, thanks to Keith and Gary at
Elecraft support. I only have the 1 filter that came with it, and the
"offset" wasn't set inside the k3 utility on the filter settings. I set
the offset like it was supposed to be, re-ran the tx calibration and
everything is running perfect.

What a great experience it was to build this from the ground up, and get
it on the air. Just minutes after the fix I got 2 new DX countries on 20m!

Thanks Elecraft!!

<snip>